Jacob Grimm；Wilhelm Grimm
雅科布·格林(Jacob Grimm，1785—1863年)与威廉·格林(WilhelmGrimm，1786—1859年)兄弟俩出生在美因河畔哈瑙的一个律师家庭。两人的经历相近，爱好相似，均曾在马尔堡大学学法律，又同在卡塞尔图书馆工作以及任格延根大学教授，1841年同时成为格林科学院院士。格林兄弟是德国的两位博学多识的学者——民间文学研究家、语言学家、历史学家。但他们最卓越的成就，却是作为世界著名的童话故事搜集家，用几十年时问(1812—1857年)完成的《儿童和家庭童话集》，也就是现在所说的“格林童话”，它包括200多篇童话和600多篇故事。其中有脍炙人口的代表作如《青蛙王子》、《灰姑娘》、《白雪公主》、《小红帽》等。由于这些童话源自民间故事，作为学者的格林兄弟又力图保持它们的原貌，因此作品中的篇章大多比较简单，更适合低龄儿童阅读。
“格林童话”的最早中译本是1934年商务印书馆出版的《格林童话全集》，由魏以新据莱比锡“德国名著丛书”译出，包括“儿童和家庭故事”与“儿童的宗教传说”两部分，共210篇童话。此后根据它不断再版。
There was once a widow who had two daughters—·one of whom waspretty and industrious，whilst the other was ugly and idle．But she wasmuch fonder of the ugly and idle one，because she was her own daughter；and the other，who was a stepdaughter，was obliged to do all the work，and be the Cinderella of the house．Every day the poor girl had to sit by arell，in the highway，and spin and spin till her fingers bled．
Now it happened that one day the spindle became bloodstained，SO the dipped it in the well，to wash it；but it dropped out of her hand and fell to the bottom．She began to weep，and ran to her step—mother and told her of the mishap．But she scolder her sharply，and was SO merciless as to say：“since you have let the spindle fall in，you must fetch it out a—gain．”
So the girl went back to the well，and did not know what to do．At last in her fear of more scolding she plunged into the well．She lost her consciousness；and when she came to herself again，she was in a lovely meadow where the sun was shining and many thousands of flowers were growing．Across this meadow she went，and at last came to a baker’S OV．en full of bread，and the bread cried out：“Oh，take me out！Take me out！Or I shall bum；I have been baked a long time！”So she went up to it，and took out all the loaves one after another with the bread—shovel．After that she went on till she came to a tree laden with apples．which called out to her：“Oh，shake me！Shake me！We apples are all ripe！”So she shook the tree till they were all down．and when she had gathered them into a heap，she went on her way．
At last she carrie to a little house，out of which an old woman peeped；but she had such large teeth that the girl was frightened，and was about to run away．But the old woman called out to her：“What are you afraid of，dear child？Stay with me；if you will do all the work in the house properly，you shall be the better for it．Only you must take care to make my bed well，and to shake it thoroughly till tlle feathers fly—for then there is snow on the earth．I ain Mother Holle．”As med wm。k so kindly to her，the gm tookgreed to enter her service．She attended to everything to the satisfactionher mistress，and always shook her bed SO vigorously hat the feathers flewabout like snow—flakes．So she had a pleasant life with her；never an an—gry word；and to eat she had boiled or roast meat every day． She stayed some time with Mother Holle，before she became sad．Atfirst she did not know what was the matter with her，but found at lengththat it was homesickness：although she was many thousand times betteroff here than at home，still she had a longing to be there．At last she saidto the old woman：“I have a longing for home；and however well offI amdown here，I cannot stay any longer；I must go up again to my own peo—ple．’’Mother Holle replied：“I am pleased that you long for your homeagain，and as you have served me so faithfully，I myself will take you upagain．”Thereupon she took her by the hand，and led her to a large door．The door was opened，and just as the maiden was standing beneath thedoorway，a heavy shower of golden rain fell，and all the gold clung toher，SO that she was completely covered over with it．
“You shall have that because you have been SO industrious．’’saidMother Holle；and at the same time she gave her back the spindle whichshe had let fall into the well．Thereupon the door was shut with a bang，and the maiden found herself up above upon the earth，not far from hermother’S house．
And as she went into the yard the cock was sitting on the well，andcried：
“Cock—a—doodle—doo！
Our golden girl come home again！” So she went into her mother，and as she arrived thus covered with gOld，she was well received，both by her and her sister．